Great info about the amp meter used...
I would say that jives with my assumption. My MHL adapter draws only 500ma. My guess is that it uses 350ma to run and supplies the remaining power to the phone. I need to turn off the screen on the Gnex, and put it in airplane mode and I see about 150ma charge over a ten minute avg.
jdbower, what MHL adater are you using? I am using #8675 from monoprice, which has been discontinued and replaced by #8805. Perhaps #8805 doesn't suffer from shared 500ma.
I would say with certainty, that my MHL adapter does not meet the MHL spec by not providing the minimum 500ma to the phone.
One quick fix would be for manufacturers to have two ports on the MHL adapter, one to charge the device, and one to act as a pass through power.
I wonder if the Samsung MHL adapter suffers the same shared 500ma.